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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24177184">Dear Shakespeare,</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown'>WhumpTown</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Prodigal Son (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Breakup, Brightwell, Dani Powell Whump, F/M, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Malcolm Bright Whump, OTP Feels, Parents Malcolm Bright and Dani Powell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:54:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,747</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24177184</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhumpTown/pseuds/WhumpTown</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Could you write me a happy ending?</p><p>5 Times Malcolm and Dani Lose Each Other <br/>+ 1 Time They Find Each Other</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malcolm Bright &amp; Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Dear Shakespeare,</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There's a lot of death, it's sad<br/>You've been warned</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1. <b>Too Soon</b></p><p>It’s a rainy Monday. The chill of the New York air makes its presence known as it blows through Malcolm’s open window. He groans as goosebumps eat up his exposed back. Pulling the comforter up over his shoulders to block the chill, Malcolm rolls over onto his right side. It’s not until he rolls over, nose mushed against rather soft flesh that his surroundings begin to kick in. He cracks an eye open, surprised when four fingers card their way through his hair. Pushing bangs back from his eyes.</p><p>“Morning,” Dani greets. </p><p>Malcolm groans because he knows what’s coming next. Frankly, he’s too cold to want to get out of bed. Murder or no murder. “Dani,” he wraps his right arm over her hips, pulling him closer. “Let’s stay in bed.” </p><p>Her fingers move up the back of his head, nails scratching over his scalp. “Can’t,” she whispers. She sits up, untangling herself from the arms he, predictably, tightens in an attempt to keep her in bed. “Malcolm,” she makes a small jab at his exposed ribs. He yelps and she is released. “We <i>can’t</i> stay home. There was a murder last night.”</p><p>Malcolm rolls over onto his back, chest exposed as he sighs dramatically at the ceiling. </p><p>He should have stayed in bed. </p><p>Around 12:35, as Malcolm is stepping into the car, Dani’s laughter following him, the rain starts to come down hard. “It’s getting worse,” he tells her. The rain is one more reason to stay at home. To go back to bed. “We really shouldn’t be driving in this kind of weather.”</p><p>Dani’s never backed down from a challenge and she’s not going to let a little rain stop her. She smiles at Malcolm, soothing his worry over. “It’s just a little rain and we’re just going to talk to the vic’s brother and going straight to the precinct. It won’t be that much driving.”</p><p>Malcolm can’t explain the tight anxiety in his stomach. Then again, when can he ever explain his anxiety? So, he brushes it off. He takes her left hand as she drives, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles as he looks out the window.</p><p>He just feels wrong.</p><p>“LAP-” Dani hits the floor at the sound of a gun being cocked behind the door. Wood chips fly as bullets rip apart the door she’d just been standing in front of. Adrenaline pumping, Dani rolls onto her stomach, gun out in front of her. She takes the shooter down quickly. She’s on her feet in a flash, clearing the room as fast as she can and getting to the gun. She throws it away from the man on the floor. Two fingers pressed to his neck confirms her shots were fatal.</p><p>“The son of a bitch-” she turns back to the door, going to the tell Malcolm that Gil told her this guy wasn’t supposed to be a problem. </p><p>He’s laying on the floor. The shards of the door are like roses laying around his head, stained red from his blood. </p><p>Her feet carry her to him but her body is on autopilot. She doesn’t feel knees hit the floor, her hands are trembling with uncertainty. </p><p>His eyes find her, mouth agape as blood escapes from between pale lips. It’s like her brightest shade of killer red lipstick. He chokes on it, eyes moving to the side as his chest lifts from the floor as he fails to breathe around the blood. </p><p>“Malcolm?” Her fingers find startling cool skin.</p><p>Another rush of blood falls out of his mouth, his hand frantically reaching out for her. His fist takes hold of her shirt and falls limp to the floor. His blue eyes slide shut, head falling to the left. </p><p>Her voice trembles, “Malcolm?”</p><p>He doesn’t give a shudder or a gasp. </p><p>“Malcolm?”<br/>___________________</p><p>2. <b>Before They Have Anything to Lose At All</b></p><p>“Bright?” </p><p>She’s known this man for all of a few days. He seems unhinged and makes her hair stand on end every time he stands near her. Gil trusts him, though, and for some reason that makes Dani push aside every second thought she’s had. </p><p>He gasps, shuddering weakly on the ground. Tears roll down his eyes. His left wrist is upturned the smallest prick of blood rising to the surface of his too-pale skin from the needle. He did it, he saved her, and he doesn’t even know her.</p><p>“Bright!”</p><p><i>“I do deserve the surgeon’s pain. I do because I am his son.”</i> She was too late and the syringe was in his skin, plunger dispensing the paralytic agent before she could do anything about it. Gil came storming in when Bright’s knees gave beneath him. She caught the back of his before he could crack it on the floor.</p><p>“Wh-What do we do!” There are tears pouring down her face. She doesn’t know Malcolm Bright, she doesn’t even understand him but the thought of him dying right here- “Gil, we have to do something!” She can feel his breathing slowing, his racing heart becoming steady and then faltering. They meet eyes.</p><p>His are bloodshot. He hasn’t slept since he collided with her in the precinct. “It’s okay,” he chokes, voice hoarse and weak. “It’s-” his neck strains and he closes his eyes. Tears slip out from the corners and slide down his face. His arms remain prone and she realizes he’s no longer moving at all.</p><p><i>“It’s one of the most painful ways to die.”</i> That’s what he’d told her the very first day he met her. Crouched over a dead body, blue eyes full of life, and smiling. He’d been smiling and alive. </p><p>“B-Bright?”</p><p>She’s pulled to her feet, JT’s sturdy chest keeping her upright as she sobs for a man she hardly knows. </p><p>For a man, she doesn’t know.<br/>___________________</p><p>3. <b>Without a Goodbye</b></p><p>Lightning strikes in the distance. The sky turns dark purple overhead. He keeps his eyes trained upwards, clenching his teeth as he fails to remain stoic. The rain has soaked his clothes but they’re nothing but they’re worn down, dirty and tattered anyhow. </p><p>They won’t find his body. </p><p>“On your knees.” A rough hand grabs the back of his neck and pushes him down.</p><p>The earth is wet and cold. He can feel it through the thinning fabric of his dress pants. Pain, hot and white spikes up his legs. He falls forward, hands catching him before he can fall fully into the mud. He’s jerked back, a hand grabbing his hair and pulling his chest back. </p><p>“Any last words?”</p><p>He closes his eyes. Face upturned to the sky, he can feel the cold rain washing down his face. They won’t find his body and that’s the most merciful thing his captures have granted him since they took him. Dani won’t get an autopsy report to look over every waking hour. She won’t know that for two weeks he’s been beaten and starved. </p><p>He won’t live to give a statement. He won’t tell a camera that the hickies she kissed up his neck the morning he was kidnapped were used against him. That they hit him, they kicked him, and they tortured him but he refused to give them her name. That they kicked his ribs in and he hallucinated her in his fragile state. That he whispered her name, imagined her hands on his face and her voice soothing his pain. That he failed her, gave them her name.</p><p>She’ll never know.</p><p>“Nothing to say, pretty boy?” </p><p>Malcolm looks down the barrel of the gun but only blinks. There are a thousand Dani’s out there. They’ll never find her, this much he’s certain of. If they do, they’ll never get her because this time the others will be prepared. </p><p>“I always liked the rain.” </p><p>The gun cocks.</p><p>He thinks about Dani. The way her eyes scrunch up when she laughs. How her eyes light up when she sees him. </p><p>The hammer sounds and it’s not pain that he feels but relief. <br/>___________________</p><p>4. <b>With An I Love You</b></p><p>“We tried,” she reminds him. “This isn’t giving up-” her own voice betrays her. “It’s-It’s-”</p><p>Malcolm takes her hand, attempting to soothe her nerves but let’s go. “Sorry,” he mumbles, shaking his head and removing his hand from hers. He can’t do that anymore. </p><p>“Malcolm,” she takes his hand back, pulling it into her lap. “We can still be friends.” Suddenly, she remembers the boundaries friends have. The things they’re giving up because of the job. They have trust issues and they’re destructive and they’d rather push each other away than admit what’s right in front of them. It’s easier. It’s safer.</p><p>He can’t look at her. Gone are the days of early morning walks and kissing when Gil isn’t watching like horny high schoolers. He can’t hold her hand when he’s anxious or buy her a blueberry scone because it matches the underwear she put on in a rush this morning. </p><p>Tonight, he’ll go to bed alone. The sheets will be cold. The bed too big. For the first time in a long time, he’ll put his own restraints on because Dani won’t be. She won’t wrap the straps around his wrist gently, making sure there’s a finger’s space between the strap and his skin. She won’t kiss him goodnight or hog his sheets or even wake him in the middle of the night because he’s snoring too loud.</p><p>“Friends,” he tests the word out. A year ago, his heart would have leaped at the word. He had no friends, totally alone with the exception of a parakeet. Now he’s been given friends and he’s had lover, and best friend, and girlfriend and he doesn’t want <i>friends</i>. But he’ll do anything for her, surely she knows that. “Okay. We can d0 friends, that’s not that hard.”</p><p>She lets go of his hand and rises to her feet. She lets out a shaky breath and he’s just waiting for her to take it back. To see this is all ridiculous. They can’t be friends. </p><p>The last suitcase in her hand, she falters at the door. “M-Malcolm-?”</p><p>He’s there in an instant. He kisses her, deepening the kiss when her hands cup his face.</p><p>She pulls away.</p><p>His hands fall limp at his sides, eyes waiting for any indication in hers that she’s going to take it all back. That’s she’s going to see this is crazy. </p><p>“I love you,” she tells him and puts her thumb over his lips as he starts to speak. “Malcolm, please.”</p><p>He looks to the floor and nods. He forces himself to keep his tears at bay. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he offers with a watery smile. </p><p>She nods back, tears in her eyes. </p><p>“I’ll bring coffee and you-”</p><p>“-grab the food, I know.” She wants to remind him to eat something more than Twizzlers tonight or that this isn’t his fault. “Tomorrow,” she repeats but it feels like an eternity away. “See ya’.”</p><p>As soon as the door shuts, Malcolm slides down the back of it. “I love you too,” he promises to the empty apartment. “I love you too!”<br/>___________________</p><p>5. <b>When They Have Everything To Lose</b></p><p>Malcolm cuts the baby’s umbilical cord, grinning uncontrollably. He looks at up at Dani, the two of them sharing an immensely pleased smile. His attention is pulled back to the baby, a nurse putting the baby in his arms. </p><p>A girl. She’s so tiny, crying at the top of her lungs and kicking her tiny little legs out. </p><p>“Doc-” the nurse’s distressed tone steals his attention from the baby in his arms. Suddenly, the focus of the room is shifted. The baby is taken from his hands. The doctor standing from his chair and barking out orders. Nurses gather around the bed, blocking out his view of Dani.</p><p>“Dani?”</p><p>The baby’s cries fill in the silence of Dani’s response. Her lips have lost their color, her skin pale as she shivers unresponsive on the bed. She’d just been smiling, panting a little out of breath and in pain but she was smiling. Ready to have their baby placed on her chest.</p><p>She was <i>just</i> smiling.</p><p>“Dani!” Malcolm tries to move back to her, hands suddenly pulling him back. He becomes manic, fear taking over as he pushes and fails to force his way back to her. Two arms wrap their way around his chest and no matter how much he throws his weight forward he’s pulled away. “No!”</p><p>His screams melt into their baby’s solemn, lonely cries.</p><p>Alone. He sits in the hall. On his shoulders is the dressing gown they put him in, blue scrubs. The fabric irritates his skin.</p><p>“Malcolm,” Gil is the only other occupant of the hallway. He’s ten-years too old to be crouching on the floor with Malcolm but he squats down by his son anyway. His touch goes unresponded to. Malcolm’s cold eyes remaining glued to the floor. “Don’t you want to see the baby? She’s probably wondering where her daddy is.”</p><p>Malcolm clenches his jaw but his lower lip still trembles. Slowly, his eyes find Gil. “That baby doesn’t want <i>me</i>, Gil.” He looks back to the floor, lips still wavering as he fails to reign in his emotions. “Did you know that newborns can see about 10 to 15 inches so they rely primarily on their olfactory sense? It’s the strongest sense.” He swallows audibly, adam’s apple bobbing. “They <i>know</i> their mother’s, Gil.” He sobs, shaking as he fails to control the emotions overtaking him. “Our baby, she wants Dani. She’s waiting to know Dani.”</p><p>Gil tries to comfort Malcolm but he draws his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself. </p><p>“She might recognize my voice,” Malcolm relents but he shakes his head. “She <i>wants</i> Dani. She’s wondering where her mommy is, Gil, but Dani’s laying in the mo-” His voice fails him. He puts his hands over his head, burying his face in his knees.</p><p>Gil has to look away. Blinking hard, he fails to keep his own tears at bay. They fall down his face, hot. He’s lost a child today and he’s terrified he’ll lose Malcolm too. “Pull yourself together,” his voice is hoarse but it’s stern. “You’ve got a little girl three rooms down, Malcolm. Now I know you’re hurting-” the tears prick his eyes at the thought of what Malcolm might have seen. Of what he’s feeling. “I know you’re hurting, son, but that baby is all alone without. Pull yourself together, Malcolm, because I raised you to keep getting back up.”</p><p>He pulls Malcolm to his chest, just like he did the night Malcolm turned Martin in. “Get up, Malcolm. This isn’t just about you.”</p><p>It’s hard. Harder than anything he’s ever done in his entire life. Six pounds and eight ounces never seemed too heavy. </p><p>“That’s the first time she’s stopped crying,” a nurse tells him softly. She smiles sadly down at him and Malcolm understands she knows how their exciting addition to their just forming family turned tragic. “You should talk to her.” The woman is young, too young to seem to wise and at peace. “She might recognize your voice.”</p><p>All these little moments come crashing down on Malcolm.</p><p>
  <i>“Oh my god!”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Malcolm isn’t expecting it but Dani reaches across the pile of paperwork between them and puts his hand on her stomach. “What’re you-”</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Dani shushes him, moving his hand along her protruding stomach.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Dani-” there’s the smallest little kick against his hand. It steals the air right out of his lungs. “Is that-?” A smile creeps up his face. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>She shares it, laughing as the baby kicks Malcolm’s hand again. “Hey, baby,” she coos to her stomach. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>Malcolm keeps his hand on her stomach when she moves her own. She smiles at him as the baby moves. He almost feels silly as he leans forward, “hello, little baby.” He’s rewarded with a solid kick to his palm. They both laugh.</i>
</p><p>He looks down at the baby in his arms. His own eyes look back at him but that’s the only resemblance he sees. Dani’s nose, Dani’s ears- His throat hurts but he croaks, “hey, little baby. It’s me, your daddy.”</p><p>She kicks out, yawning. She draws her body up like she’s about to start to cry. </p><p>“Shh,” he soothes her, spreading his right hand out on her full belly. “It’s alright. I’ve got you.”</p>
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